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GEN. LUCIUS F. HUBBARD 



Tributes to the Memory of 

General 
Lucius Frederick Hubbard 



By the Commandery of the 
State of Minnesota 



Military Order of the Loyal Legion 
April 8th, 1913 



Committee 

John Ireland 
Henry A. Castle 
Judson H. Bishop 



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Memorial Exercises 

AT THE regular meeting and banquet of 
the Commandery of the State of 
Minnesota, MiUtary Order of the Loyal 
Legion, held at the Ryan Hotel, Saint Paul, 
on April 8th, 1913, the Committee, consisting 
of Chaplain John Ireland, Captain Henry A. 
Castle and General Judson W. Bishop, pre- 
viously appointed by Commander Silas H. 
Towler, made report, as follows: 

General J. W, Bishop presented the fol- 
lowing Resolutions, which, after the memorials 
had been read, were adopted by a rising vote 
of the Commandery: 

Resolved by the Commandery of the State 
of Minnesota, Military Order of the Loyal 
Legion, that in the lamented death of Com- 
panion Lucius Frederick Hubbard, late Briga- 
dier General U. S. Volunteers, and former 
Governor of Minnesota, this, Commandery 
mourns the departure of a beloved companion, 
and all the people of the State lose an illus- 
trious citizen, whose services in war and in 
peace have adorned the annals of the common- 
wealth. 

Resolved, that our deepest sympathies are 
hereby extended to the widow and family of 
our honored companion, with the assurance of 
our abiding regard for his cherished memory. 
Resolved, that the memorials herewith 
presented be adopted and preserved in our 
records as the tribute of this Commandery to 
a worthy member, and that a copy thereof be 
transmitted to Mrs. Hubbard. 



In Memoriam 

Captain Henry A. Castle offered the following, which 
was unanimously adopted by a rising vote: 

UCIUS FREDERICK HUBBARD. 
Brigadier General, U. S. Volunteers and 
Governor of Minnesota, born January 
26, 1836, at Troy, N. Y., and died February 
5, 1913, at Minneapolis, Minnesota, was an 
honored member of this Commandery, who 
by his exceptionally distinguished military and 
civil career rendered patriotic service to the 
nation and conferred honor upon the state of 
his adoption. His amiable character, his 
sterling integrity and his unchallenged hero- 
ism, commanded the affectionate admiration 
of every companion and comrade who was 
privileged to know him. The story of his 
achievements will be a legacy to coming 
generations of grateful Minnesotans. 

General Hubbard was the eldest son of 
Charles F. and Margaret (Van Valkenberg) 
Hubbard. His paternal ancestor, George 
Hubbard, settled in New England in the 
seventeenth century. His maternal line was 
of Holland extraction, his grandmother, Mar- 
garet Van Cott, being a cousin of Martin Van 
Buren. 

Charles F. Hubbard died when his son 
Lucius was three years old, his wife surviving 
him for seven years, leaving the boy orphaned 
at the age of ten. After a public school train- 
ing and a three years' course at the Academy 
in Granville, New York, Lucius F. Hubbard, 



at the age of fifteen began his self-supporting 
experience. Having chosen the tinsmith's 
trade, and served his apprenticeship, he 
worked as a journeyman in Chicago for three 
years, and in 1857 came to Minnesota. 

He settled at Red Wing and decided to 
engage in newspaper work. In 1859 he 
established the Red Wing Republican and 
made of it a successful enterprise which still 
exists, one of many monuments to his versatile 
activity. He was promptly recognized as a 
force in the community; was elected Register 
of Deeds for Goodhue County, and nominated 
for state senator in 1 860, but defeated. 

The outbreak of the war for the Union 
changed his plans, arousing all his patriotic 
impulses and soldierly instincts. He enlisted 
as a private in the Fifth Minnesota Infantry, 
December 19, 1861. He became Captain, 
February 5, 1862; Lieutenant Colonel, March 
24, 1862 and Colonel, August 31, 1862. On 
December 16, 1864, he was brevetted Briga- 
dier General for conspicuous gallantry in the 
battle of Nashville, Tennessee. He cam- 
manded a brigade for nearly two years and 
participated in thirty-one engagements. He 
was severely wounded in the battles of 
Corinth and of Nashville, but in both cases 
retained command until victory was assured. 
General D. S. Stanley, in his official report, 
made special mention of his brilliant conduct 
at Corinth. After the battle of Nashville, 
where Colonel Hubbard, then twenty-eight 
years old, commanded a brigade, his division, 
corps and army Commanders, Generals, John 
McArthur, A. J. Smith and George H. Thomas 



united in a telegram to President Lincoln 
highly complimenting his service and recom- 
mending his promotion. Three horses were 
killed under him in this battle, and his brigade 
with fifteen hundred men, captured over two 
thousand prisoners, nine pieces of artillery and 
seven stands of colors. 

General Hubbard was mustered out at 
Mobile, Alabama, September 6, 1865. He 
returned to Red Wing with impaired health, 
after the restoration of which, in 1866, he 
engaged successfully in the grain and milling 
industries, and later in railway construction. 
He built the Midland Railroad from Wabasha 
to Zumbrota ; promoted the Minnesota Central 
from Red Wing to Mankato, and built the 
Duluth, Red Wing, and Southern Railroad, 
which continued under his management until 
1902. His useful business activities thus 
royally supplemented his gallant war service, 
and combined with his honorable achieve- 
ments in civil administration to illustrate the 
virtues of American citizenship. 

He served the state in many conspicuous 
and responsible positions. He was a member 
of the Minnesota Senate from Goodhue 
County from 1873 to 1877. He was elected 
Governor of Minnesota in 1 88 1 . His five 
years tenure of that exalted office was marked 
by the enactment into law, on his recommen- 
dation of many valuable state policies, among 
which were railway control and grain inspec- 
tion; also an effective organization of the 
national guard. He retired from the executive 
chair universally applauded, and the Legis- 
lature named one of our prosperous counties 
in his honor. 



General Hubbard's public spirit was mani- 
fested by gratuitous service under numerous 
appointments on important boards and com- 
missions. Among such were those for the 
investigation of the old state railroad bonds; 
examination of the State's fiscal accounts; 
arbitrations of disputes as to prison contracts; 
the compilation of Minnesota's war records 
and the administration of the State Soldier's 
Home and Relief Fund. He was president of 
the Soldier's Home Board at the time of his 
death. 

He was a vigorous public speaker when 
occasion required, but always modestly 
avoided public display when possible. He was 
a clear and forcible writer. His executive 
documents and his contributions to Minnesota 
history are of exceptional value. 

He was influential and unselfish in his 
support of the Republican party. He was a 
potent factor in advancing Cushman K. Davis 
to the Governorship in 1873, and to the 
Senatorship in 1887. From 1896 to 1900, he 
was the member from this state of the Repub- 
lican National Committee, having charge of 
the Northwestern headquarters at Chicago 
during the first McKinley campaign. 

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American 
War in 1898, General Hubbard promptly 
tendered his services. He was appointed 
Brigadier General of Volunteers and assigned 
to the command of the third division, seventh 
army corps, with headquarters at Jacksonville 
and Savannah. In this capacity his youthful 
army experience was of inestimable benefit in 
promoting the discipline and efficiency of his 
troops. 



General Hubbard was a comrade of Acker 
Post, Grand Army of the Republic; a member 
of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, 
of the Sons of the American Revolution and 
a Mason of the Knight Templar rank. He 
was a charter member of the Minnesota Com- 
mandery. Military Order of the Loyal Legion, 
organized in 1883, and served as its comman- 
der in 1899-1900. 

On May 17th, 1868, General Hubbard was 
married to Miss Amelia Thomas, a daughter 
of Charles and Amelia Thomas, and a lineal 
descendant of Sir John Moore. Their children 
are: Charles F., Lucius V., and Julia, now 
the wife of Captain Charles H. McGill. Until 
1901 the family residence remained at Red 
Wing. It was then located at Saint Paul. 
After 1910 General and Mrs. Hubbard resided 
in Minneapolis. 

After his recovery from the ailments 
brought on by his arduous Civil War service. 
General Hubbard enjoyed good health during 
the long decades of his active life, and literally 
died with his harness on. On January 26th, 
1913, his seventy-seventh birthday was quietly 
observed with his family at Minneapolis. He 
pursued his daily business routine until Feb- 
ruary 4th. On the 5th he was slightly indis- 
posed and late in the afternoon, he passed 
peacefully away, as "One who wraps the 
drapery of his couch around him and lies 
down to pleasant dreams. " 

The chivalrous, useful, beautiful life of 
General Hubbard presented a rare combina- 
tion of modest self-effacement, serene self- 
poise, inherent strength of character, and 



generous intellectual endowments, which led 
to success and supremacy in all the high fields 
of endeavor to which he was called by the 
mandates of destiny. He lived universally 
respected and died universally mourned. 




A Tribute 

To the Memory of 

Gen. L. F. Hubbard 

Archbishop John Ireland presented the following: 

SURING one part of his career, I was 
very close to Lucius F. Hubbard. I 
was the chaplain of the Fifth Regiment 
of the Volunteers of Minnesota, of which he 
was the Colonel. Be it my privilege to tell of 
him as I knew him, as I then admired and 
loved him. 

The tribute I offer tonight to the memory 
of Lucius F. Hubbard is that of a true, loyal, 
life-long friend. He merited my friendship in 
the long ago by the superb qualities that were 
his, as the man and as the soldier, by the many 
and timely acts of courtesy and kindliness by 
which I was personally honored, while under 
his command. The friendship he so well 
merited was given in grateful profusion: and, 
to my joy and pride, in return his friendship 
was not refused me, as oft and oft proofs 
irrecusable gave testimony. As in the long 
ago, around the camp-fire, on wearisome 
march, on field of battle, so was it, along the 
years, while he still walked the earth. Through- 
out, in the many spheres of activity he 
traversed, he was to me the man, the citizen, 
the statesman, from whom it were a wrong 
to withhold my esteem, and, however far 
apart our daily journeyings, never did we 
come together without plain evidences from 
one to the other that we were in Minnesota 



one to the other the friends we had been in 
our wanderings beneath the southern skies. 

It was a wrench of the deep fibres of my 
heart, when the fatal Hne was read — Death 
of General Lucius F. Hubbard. A fortnight 
before, we had sat together, in Minnesota's 
Capitol, in front of the painting recently 
unfolded on its wall, to commerorate the 
charge of the Fifth Regiment in the battle of 
Corinth, discoursing together of the happen- 
ings of the great day, October 4th, 1862, so 
glorious to him and to his men, and of its 
important bearings upon the issue of the 
Civil War — and so soon afterwards I was to 
be made to realize that then I had seen him 
for the last time on earth. 

Companions, the old warriors are going 
away. Can we but drop a tear, as one by one 
they fall by the wayside, even though our 
faith in a better world be vivid, and our souls 
be joyous in the remembrance of the great 
things done for America, while their step was 
nimble and their arm strong? Can we but 
most sorely sorrow, when the stricken ones 
are those whose valor had preeminently opened 
the way to our victories, whose virtues had 
preeminently won to themselves our admira- 
tion and our love? 

In what to-night I say of Lucius F. Hub- 
bard, I limit myself to two points — his 
general character as a soldier and as a com- 
mander, and the conspicuous part he played 
in the battle of Corinth, October the 4th, 1862. 

General Hubbard, the soldier and the 
commander! I repeat what I often said to 
himself. He had but one fault — a fault that 



told only against his personal interest — a 
fault that in the service of fellow-servant and 
of country is one of the noblest virtues. It 
was this— When he himself was the issue, 
when his own advancement to higher honor 
and gain was in the scales of circumstances, 
he was too modest, too retiring, too unaggres- 
sive. Had he been less of all this, his place 
on the scroll of rank and fame were far more 
exalted than in fact the authority of the nation 
had decreed it to be. Duty done, in fullness 
of scope, in fullness of self-oblation — thither 
was Hubbard's conscious, unwavering bend of 
soul: there Hubbard ceased his effort, what- 
ever else were to be given, whatever else were 
to be held back. 

Where, however, duty spoke, he was firm- 
ness itself, aggressiveness itself — unflinching 
in the maintenance of discipline among his 
subalterns, undaunted in the rush to battle. 

When Hubbard took command of the 
Fifth Regiment, in succession to the retiring 
Colonel, there was need in the regiment of a 
firm, undeviating hand. It was there at once, 
so soon as the eagle of colonelcy graced the 
shoulders of Lucius F. Hubbard. At once all 
felt that rule and obedience were the order of 
the day. The master had come: discipline 
reigned in the regiment, as later it reigned in 
the brigade, when Hubbard had stepped into 
higher responsibilities. 

As to his bravery in battle, the one instance 
of Corinth is all-sufficient evidence. 

Hubbard was the master — but always the 
quiet, self-possessed, dignified Hubbard. There 
was in him an utter absence of the "fuss and 



feather" temper: nothing in him of the 
tempestuous autocrat, nothing of the vain- 
glorious braggart. His quietness of word and 
of movement might for a moment be mistaken 
for timidity and weakness, but for a moment 
only. Soon his strength of temper was 
visible, as it was soon felt: and this was only 
the more solid in nature, and the more effective 
in results, that it rested altogether on stable 
qualities of mind and heart, and required, 
indeed allowed, no extraneous propping of 
bluster and parade. 

And with all his strength of temper he was 
most kind of heart, most tender of service. 
The regiment was as his household, of which 
he was the protector, the father. Around the 
camp-fire he was the most genial of comrades: 
near the fever-stricken, or the wounded 
soldier, the most thoughtful and compassion- 
ating of friends. At the close of the weary 
march, his first occupation was the care of his 
soldiers, that rations be issued, and, if possible, 
tents be set up. His own comfort was the 
later consideration, and in this he demanded 
that all officers follow his example. Punish- 
ments, now and then, had to be meted out: 
but always justice was translucid: and where 
the maintenance of order allowed, mercy 
walked in the wake, so that culprits harbored 
no rancor, rather were impelled to better ways. 
The test of the commander is the esteem 
and the affection of his soldiers. None 
quicker than the soldier to discover unworthi- 
ness and revile it with scorn, as none more 
ready to recognize worthiness and reward it 
with applause and loyal service. Well — the 



Fifth Regiment reverenced and loved Lucius 
F. Hubbard — and to this fact was largely due 
the obedience he received from them, the 
instantaneous response elicited by word of 
mouth, or waving of hand. Throughout the 
Northwest, oft and oft, in the years succeed- 
ing the Civil War, I was wont to meet Hub- 
bard's soldiers, men of every social class, men 
of every industrial calling, men of every tribe 
and language — for as no other regiment from 
Minnesota the Fifth was cosmopolitan in its 
membership — always and from all it was a 
query of love about Hubbard, a message of 
pride and gratitude wafted to the address of 
the Colonel. Few of his soldiers were alive 
to hearken to the sad news — General Hubbard 
is dead; but of these that were alive, not one 
was there, I am sure, whose eye-lid did not 
mioisten, as his lips quivered in a fond farewell. 

One further word on the general character 
of Hubbard, the man and the soldier. To me, 
particularly, the chaplain of the Regiment, 
belongs the privilege of speaking that word. 
It is of his bearing, private and public, as a 
Christian gentleman. In this he was beyond 
reproach, a model to all, to officers and to 
soldiers. This is high praise. I take deep 
pleasure in speaking it. It is praise author- 
ized by unchallanged fact. 

I come to the battle of Corinth. There 
conspiciously is seen Hubbard's bravery and 
skill of leadership. What I tell of Hubbard 
at Corinth is what I witnessed, what I remem- 
ber today as clearly as if it were an incident 
of yesterday, what substantially I reported in 
a letter to the St. Paul Press, written a few 



days after the battle. It is, also, as to the 
effect of the action of the Fifth in the battle, 
what was told me more than once by General 
Rosecrans, the commander of forces at Corinth 
as years later I sought from him confirmation 
of my own reminiscenses. 

The Battle of Corinth occupies compara- 
tively small place in histories of the Civil War. 
The eye of writers is more readily filled with 
numbers — number of men under arms, num- 
ber of men killed or wounded. As a matter 
of fact, in the philosophy of the war, Corinth 
was a most important battle — and in it was 
most important the part played by General 
Hubbard and under his leadership by the 
Fifth Regiment of the Volunteers of Minne- 
sota. 

Corinth was of exceptional value as a 
strategic point. There two railroads crossed 
— the Mobile & Ohio, leading northward to 
the Ohio River and southward to the Gulf, 
and the Memphis & Charleston, leading west- 
ward to the Mississippi River and eastward 
to the Atlantic Ocean. Either of the con- 
tending armies occupying Corinth commanded 
into all directions the field of warfare. 1 1 was 
the first stronghold to be captured in a north- 
ward movement of the Confederates. And a 
northward movement was in the plan of the 
Confederates. It was their ambition — and 
wisely so on their part — to cross the border 
line and fight the Union States within their 
own latitude. That was the purpose of Lee, 
when in July, 1863, he headed his forces 
across the Potomac, along the road to Gettys- 
burg. It was the purpose of Bragg, in his 



expedition into Kentucky, in August, 1862. 
It was now in October, 1862, we may well 
believe the purpose of Van Dorn and Price, 
as they wended their way towards Corinth. 
Corinth taken, Jackson alone, sixty miles 
further northward, separated them from the 
Ohio River. Jackson would quickly fall if 
Corinth fell, and quickly afterwards the soil 
of Illinois and of Indiana would bend beneath 
the tread of the victorious Confederates. War 
waged upon Union territory, the expectations 
of the Confederacy would rise high. Sym- 
pathizers of the rebellion would speak and act 
more loudly. Loyalists would lose courage. 
The nations of Europe would recognize the 
new republic. 

Rosecrans was in immediate command at 
Corinth with about twenty- three thousand 
men under his hand. Grant, who had recently 
succeeded Halleck as chief commander of the 
Army of the Tennessee, was entrenched in 
Jackson. The enemy led by Van Dorn and 
Price, as it was afterwards discovered, were, 
in number, slightly inferior to the forces under 
Rosecrans. 

It was a solemn morning in Corinth, that 
of October the 4th, 1862. Rosecrans was not 
without fear. An adjutant from headquarters 
rode to the Fifth to order Hubbard to deploy 
one of his companies as skirmishers amid the 
trunks and stumps of trees felled purposely 
some time before to cut off the northern side 
of the town from a dense forest in which an 
approaching enemy would be sure to muster 
for the attack. "Where is Rosecrans?" I 
asked of the adjutant. "Flat on his knees. 



praying, in his tent, " was the answer. "What 
of the day." "All right if Grant only keeps 
his promise to have reinforcements here in 
good time." As later it happened, reinforce- 
ments, led by McPherson, arrived at Corinth 
only at sundown on the 4th, when the day's 
work had been done. 

The men of the Fifth Regiment were the 
sole occupants of the public square. They had 
arrived there later in the evening of October 
the 3rd, from a point four miles outside the 
town, where they had been detained in guard 
of a bridge, and where certainly they would 
have been taken prisoners at day-break, had 
not Lieutenant McGrorty, then in Corinth, 
late in the afternoon concluded that they were 
forgotten by Rosecrans, and obtained an 
order, which he at once carried to Hubbard, 
that they hasten into town. The square was 
closed to the west by the tracks of the Mobile 
and the Ohio Railroad, to the south by the 
Tishamingo Hotel, then used as a hospital, 
to the north and east by rows of stores and 
residences — a street opening southward and 
northward along the east side. Arms were 
stacked close to the railroad tracks — to our 
front the open square, behind us an unbroken 
field, and, at some distance but plainly in 
sight. Forts William and Robinette. 

The early hours of the morning were given 
over to rather light essays of artillery from one 
army to the other. At nine o'clock the grand 
advance was ordered by Van Dorn and Price 
from the forest north of the town. It was 
made in two divisions, one directly north of 
the square, the other farther westward oppo- 



site Fort Robinette. The division, directly 
north of the square, was the first to attack 
the Federal lines. The other division emerged 
from the forest a half hour later. Of what 
was happening north of the square, the men 
of the Fifth had no knowledge — stores and 
residences hiding from their view all opera- 
tions. Quite different, however, with the 
attack of the second division. We had it 
plainly under our eyes from the very outset — 
the magnificent rush of the Texan Rangers 
from the cover of the forest, across the masses 
of stumps and trunks of trees, to the parapets 
of Fort Robinette, whence, the brave leader 
Colonel Rogers having fallen in death, they 
were driven back by the defenders of the Fort 
with fearful slaughter amid their ranks. The 
men of the Fifth were lustily shouting victory, 
when suddenly their attention was wrested to 
a strange spectacle on the east side of the 
square — the rush of the fleeing Federal artil- 
lery, the rush of the fleeing Federal infantry, 
and as those hurried out of the square further 
into the town, the rush of the Confederates 
in hot pursuit. 

The fight to the north of the square had 
been fierce, both sides losing heavily. In 
spite of the desperate resistance on the part 
of the Federals, the center of their line was 
penetrated, the First Missouri Artillery in 
charge of the redan to the west and east of 
which the Federal army swung its battalions, 
limbered up and galloped off in wild confusion 
towards the town, killing several of the nearby 
Ohio regiments and scattering the remainder. 
Price's troops followed, and now were racing 



into the town, along the street which opened 
into the north-east corner of the square. 

It was Hubbard's moment. Just as the 
fugitives were first coming into sight an order 
reached him — "Support the battery," a wave 
of the hand indicating where the battery was 
supposed to be when the bearer of the order 
had left headquarters. But now the battery 
— or so much of it as was able to run— was in 
flight, beyond possibility of support, beyond 
the reach of the Fifth. Hubbard was in 
presence of the in-rushing Confederates, aban- 
doned to his own counsel and initiative. He 
was equal to the emergency. 

Instantly, so soon as the Confederates 
appeared, Hubbard with sharp and fearless 
clamor brought the Fifth into line, faces 
straight to enemy. A minute of delay would 
have allowed the men to think and perhaps 
to tremble. Then — "Aim" — "Hold fire." It 
was supreme presence of mind. The purpose 
was to wait until the north end of the square 
had a full complement of the enemy. Next — 
"Fire;" and every rifle told of carnage. 
Then — "Advance"; and Hubbard in the saddle, 
right to the front, waving madly his sword, 
the men of the Fifth charged the enemy, who 
in dismay rushed backward, arresting the 
advance of the whole invading column and 
throwing it in its entirety into disorder and 
flight. The Fifth continued in pursuit firing 
and bayonetting, until the redan was reached, 
and the enemy were across the abattis, close 
to the forest from which they had first 
emerged. As back the enemy flew, regiments 
and batteries, heretofore in confusion, rallied, 



and helped in the rout. But the work was 
done — done by Hubbard and Minnesota's 
noble Fifth; the enemy were repulsed from 
the town; their backward flight was an 
accomplished fact. What rallying regiments 
and batteries did, was to help in making the 
flight more hasty and more complete. 

Shortly before, the attack on Fort Robi- 
nette had failed. Both divisions of the Con- 
federates were beaten hard. The battle of 
Corinth was won. 

If the entrance of the Confederates into 
the town through the square had continued, 
the Federals, on the outskirts, were taken 
between two firing lines, at a disastrous 
disadvantage. The day, we may well believe, 
was lost. But the Confederates did not enter 
the town. Hubbard and the gallant Fifth 
arrested their inward march. The Fifth was 
the only regiment in the inside of the town. 
They failing, none others were there to avert 
defeat. And the fate of the Fifth was in 
Hubbard's hands. If the Fifth did not take 
fright or waste powder in desultory shooting, 
credit must be given to Colonel Hubbard. It 
was his coolness, his presence of mind, his 
sternness of command, that averted danger. 
It was his leadership in the charge that brought 
every rifle, every bayonet into immediate 
and unhesitating action. The victory of 
Corinth was the victory of Lucius F. Hubbard. 

But how strangely at times history is 
written! "The Photographic History of the 
Civil War" has this account of the scene on 
the square of Corinth: "The storming Con- 
federates advanced to the north side of the 



square and posted themselves around a house 
where General Halleck had maintained his 
headquarters the summer before. Two field 
pieces opened upon them, and the daring 
southerners were whirled back." Two field 
pieces! There was at the time no field piece 
in or near the square. And if at a later 
moment the fugitives of the First Missouri 
Artillery had rallied and fired, their canister 
would have struck only the men of the Fifth, 
who had so quickly leaped into the pursuit.. 
Must I say it? The official report of the 
Battle of Corinth made by General Rose- 
crans, is a puzzle. He writes — that Price's 
columns having penetrated the square, "they 
were greeted by a storm of grape from a 
section of Immell's battery, soon to be re- 
enforced by the Tenth Ohio, which sent them 
whirling back, pursued by the Fifth Minne- 
sota, which advanced on them from their 
position near the depot." Shall we say that 
Immell's battery and the Tenth Ohio riddled 
the invading columns at some other point of 
the field, at some other moment of time, 
probably when the columns were near the 
redan in their backward flight, or that when 
writing hurriedly his report — constructed from 
the several reports of subaltern commanders 
Rosecrans unconsciously allowed his pen to 
fall into some confusion. The charge of the 
Fifth was almost instantaneous. There was 
no room for a discharge of the guns of a bat- 
tery without a slaughter of the Fifth. When 
in later years, I discussed with General Rose- 
crans the incidents of the battle, I had no 
knowledge of the passage in his official report, 



and, consequently, did not ask for an expla- 
nation. 

General Stanley in his report makes no 
specific mention of the square. He says, 
however, of the Fifth: "At this instant I 
sent the Fifth Minnesota to attack the flank 
of the Second Column of the enemy. " (General 
Hubbard asserts that the order sent to him 
was to support the battery which by the time 
he received the order was in flight) General 
Stanley adds to the address of the Fifth: "I 
am happy to bear testimony to the gallant 
fight of this little regiment, commanded by 
Colonel Hubbard. Few regiments on the field 
did more effective killing than they. " Stanley 
makes no mention of Immell's battery or of 
the Tenth Ohio, spoken of by Rosecrans. 

Colonel Hubbard's own report gives the 
facts as I have rehearsed them, omitting, 
however, as was to be expected from him, 
direct allusion to such personal acts, as should 
have reflected special credit upon him. 

The morning after the battle the Fifth was 
in the line of march, in pursuit of the fleeing 
enemy. Stanley rode past it, accompanied 
by another officer. "This is a small regiment" 
said the latter. Stanley smiled in reply: 
"They may be small in number, but they 
gained the day." I was one of those who 
heard from him those words, as also these 
others, spoken as he pointed out the Fifth to 
Rosecrans: "Here is the regiment that did 
the most killing." 

Many years later I conversed with Rose- 
crans, when he was Congressman, in Wash- 
ington — and on several occasions, as we 



together rehearsed the incidents of the battle 
of Corinth, he said deHberately and clearly: 
"The Fifth Minnesota saved the day." 

Corinth saved, the Confederate advance 
upon Jackson was arrested; the invasion of 
the Union territory north of the State of 
Tennessee was arrested. Corinth saved, a 
stronghold remained in the possession of the 
Federal forces, from which the country bor- 
dering on two far-reaching lines of railroad 
was easily protected, from which, as a basis, 
incursions southward and eastward into vital 
points of the Confederacy could readily be 
attempted; the road to Vicksburg was open 
to the army of Grant. 

Minnesota has done well in placing upon 
the wall of its Capitol a painting of the Fifth 
Minnesota charging in the square of Corinth 
the invading Confederate column — and it was 
truth that guided the pencil of the artist in 
portraying as the hero of the painting Lucius 
F. Hubbard — the hero of the square of Corinth 
on the great day, October the 4th, 1862. 

This my tribute to my commander and 
friend, Lucius F. Hubbard. I am glad I am 
allowed to tell it to his companions of the 
Loyal Legion. Lucius F. Hubbard, farewell! 




PUBLISHED WITH THE 

COMPLIMENTS OF 
CHARLES H. MCGILL 



I cooteyMcompany I 

*»N»tAP0U9 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 700 330 ^jgf^ 



